RPI professor earns award for work with spectroscopy
CRANBURY, N. J. » Spectroscopy, a multimedia platform that promotes the use of spectroscopic instrumentation in applied research, environmental testing, quality control, and the life sciences, has named Dr. Jacob T. Shelley, of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the winner of the 2020 Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award.
The award will be presented by Spectroscopy magazine at the 2020 Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry in Tucson, A. Z., on Jan. 15, 2020.
“We are honored to recognize amazing, dynamic and wellversed professionals like Dr. Shelley through the Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award,” said Michael J. Hennessy Jr., president of MJH Life Sciences, the parent company of Spectroscopy. “From his current work, which focuses on the development of plasma- based tools for mass spectrometry, to past endeavors, which contributed to the discovery that the ionization pathway of species could be tuned by adjusting the plasma parameters, Dr. Shelley has made contributions to the realm of spectroscopy that have demonstrated the true impact he has had in this field.”
Shelley is the Alan Paul Schulz Career Development Professor of Chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Shelley has received several other awards, including the Bunsen-Kirchhoff Award from the German Working Group for Applied Spectroscopy of the German Chemical Society,
the Tagungsstipendium Analytische Chemie from the German Chemical Society, a Humboldt Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and a Gordon F. Kirkbright Bursary Award from the Association of British Spectroscopists Trust.
In addition to Shelley’s current work, which focuses on the development plasma- based tools for rapid and sensitive detec
tion and identification of a broad range of analytes from complex matrices, his other investigations have focused on fundamentally understanding the desorption and ionization processes and their propensity for matrix effects, specifically of direct analysis mass spectrometry approaches.
The Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award, awarded annually since 2017, recognizes the achievements and aspirations of a talented young atomic spectroscopist, selected by an independent scientific committee.